MAS changes LAX stop from Taipei in favor of Tokyo

Malaysia Airlines, from 25th March, will switch its stop on the way to Los Angeles, from Taipei to Tokyo Narita. Los Angeles will also see a frequency increase from 3 to 4 flights per week.

Schedule:
MH92 KUL 1100 – 1910 NRT 2040 – 1510+1 LAX 772 1357

MH93 LAX 1715 – 2030+1 NRT 2205+1 – 0430+2 KUL 772 1246

It is however hard to see whether MAS will be able to finally make money on this route. Not only will it face competition from the seven incumbent airlines on the route, those airlines have well developed market segments for themselves which will be hard to break into for MH. The airline’s intention in moving to Tokyo must have been to capture more premium traffic – however this segment is already well captured by ANA as well as Singapore Airlines both of which offer a lucrative frequent flyer programme too, while the lower end of the market appears to be dominated by Delta, JAL and Korean Air.